Quest for Camelot

Quest for Camelot
Movie poster for "Quest for Camelot"
Directed by	Frederick Du Chau
Written by	Vera Chapman Kirk De Micco William Schifrin
Produced by	Andre Clavel Dalisa Cohen Zahra Zowlatabadi
Starring	Jessalyn Gilsig Andrea Corr Cary Elwes Bryan White Gary Oldman Jane Seymour Eric Idle Don Rickles Jaleel White Pierce Brosnan John Gielgud
Edited by	Stanford C. Allen
Music by	Patrick Doyle David Foster Ray Anthony Leonard Auletti John Willams Celine Dion
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
Release dates	May 15, 1998
Running time	86 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000(Estimated)

Quest for Camelot is an animated feature from Warner Bros. Animation, released in 1998. It was retitled The Magic Sword in Asia and The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot in the UK. In France, the movie was titled Excalibur l'épée magique what can be translated Excalibur the magic sword. It is based on the novel The King's Damsel by Vera Chapman and was shot in Austin, Texas.

The movie is about a young girl named Kayley who wants to be a knight of the Round Table in Camelot like her father; Sir Lionel, a blind man named Garrett who wishes only to be left alone, and their quest to find Excalibur.

Plot

Kayley's father, Sir Lionel, is one of the knights of the Round Table. Kayley wants to be a knight like her father and save Camelot. Tragically, Lionel is killed by the greedy Sir Ruber, who wanted more land than everyone else at the division ceremony. Having been denied this, Ruber attacks Arthur, but Lionel takes the blow for the king, and is killed. Ruber flees Camelot after being beaten back by Excalibur. After Sir Lionel's funeral, Arthur tells Lady Juliana, Lionel's widow, that she and Kayley will always be welcome in Camelot.

After ten years, Ruber's griffin attacks Camelot, injures King Arthur, and steals Excalibur. Merlin's silver-winged falcon Ayden attacks the griffin and the sword falls down into the Forbidden Forest. A horn is sounded signaling across the country that Excalibur has been stolen. Meanwhile, Ruber goes to Kayley's home, holds everyone hostage and uses a dark magic formula he got from some witches to create steel warriors out of his human henchmen (and a chicken) combined with the selected weapons (maces, crossbows, flails, axes, etc.). He then takes over the village and captures Juliana, Kayley's mother. He plans to use her in order to gain entrance into Camelot. Ruber's griffin tells him that Ayden caused him to drop Excalibur into the forbidden forest and Ruber gets even more mad when Kayley escapes from his clutches.

Kayley runs away to escape the warriors and finds herself in the Forbidden Forest. Determined to find Excalibur, she winds up falling down a trap and meets Garrett, a blind hermit, and Ayden, his falcon friend. Kayley convinces him to help her find Excalibur with her. She then learns about Garret's past: he was once a young stable boy in Camelot. The stable caught fire and he was rescuing the horses when one of them hit his head; the result made him blind. Yet Kayley's father still believed in Garrett and taught him to adapt.

They travel to Dragon Country and meet the funny two-headed dragon named Devon and Cornwall. Devon and Cornwall don't like each other, can't breathe fire or fly (which is why they are bullied by other dragons), and both want to be individual dragons. After escaping the dragons and Ruber and his men, Devon and Cornwall decide to join to the group after they broke the dragon code of helping humans. Garrett reluctantly agrees after Kayley manages to convince him.

Later, they discover that Excalibur is no longer where the griffin dropped it. Kayley is distressed and babbles on while Garrett warns her to be quiet. Because she is talking, he cannot hear the approach of Ruber and his cronies, one of whom shoots Garrett in the side with an arrow and injures him. Kayley drags Garrett away as the thorn bushes grab Ruber and his men and hold them captive.

Juliana worries about Kayley as Kayley drags the fainting Garrett into a small cave. She apologizes profusely as he lays there, but he tells her it's all right, and they realize that they've fallen in love as Garrett is healed by magical forest plants.

Later, the group goes into a dark cave. In the cave lives a giant, rocky ogre who holds the sword Excalibur, and is currently using it as a toothpick. Kayley succeeds in getting the sword, but she and Garrett get stuck in the way and Devon and Cornwall have to save them.

When they arrive in Camelot, Kayley wants Garrett to go with her, but Garrett refuses. After he leaves, Ruber returns and steals the sword from Kayley, takes her captive, and fuses it to his right arm (instead of a hand he has the sword). Devon and Cornwall, who see what's happening, run to Garrett for help, finally convincing Garrett to go save Kayley. By working together for the first time, Devon and Cornwall are able to fly and breathe fire.

Meanwhile, Kayley, who has been bound and gagged in the back of a cart, meets her mother and tries to escape from her ropes and gag. Bladebeak, the minion created from one of Juliana's chickens, releases Kayley and she runs to find Ruber. Garrett finds Kayley and they go to King Arthur's castle.

In the castle, Ruber meets King Arthur and tries to kill him. Kayley and Garrett stop him and trick Ruber into returning Excalibur to its stone. A blue wave strikes Camelot. It turns the mechanical men back to normal (including Bladebeak), destroys Ruber, and cures Arthur's injury. Briefly, the magic grants Devon and Cornwall their wish to be separate, but the two opt to remain connected and they are returned to their original state. Some suggest that Garrett's sight is restored as well, though this is never actually proven in the movie. He still retains his glassy-eyes and walking staff stil the very end.

After Ruber dies, King Arthur pulls Excalibur from its stone, Kayley and Garrett get married and become knights of the round table. The movie ends with the happy couple riding a horse with a sign saying: "Just Knighted".

Characters

• Kayley (Jessalyn Gilsig, singing voice by Andrea Corr) - The young girl who becomes a knight of the round table. She was born the day King Arthur pulled Excalibur out of the stone. She is resourceful, and headstrong almost to the point of foolishness, but very brave. Although she does have a tendency to speak before she thinks. She is a very impulsive character with a heart of gold.

• Garrett (Cary Elwes, singing voice by Bryan White) - He was blinded after an accident in the stables during a fire, and Kayley's father was the only one who believed in him. After the death of Sir Lionel, he abandoned society and went to live in the Forbidden Forest with only Ayden for company. After meeting Kayley he learns to trust others.

• Ayden (Frank Welker) - Merlin's pet falcon with silver wings, he works with Garrett and uses his maneuver-ability to out-wing the larger Griffin.

• Griffin (Bronson Pinchot) - Ruber's pet griffin. Is surprisingly well-mannered for a terrifying mythological beast, even pulling out a monocle to read. Ruber berates and abuses it.

• Sir Lionel (Gabriel Byrne) - Kayley's father- he is murdered by Sir Ruber during the knight's battle with him. He was King Arthur's most trusted knight.

• Juliana (Jane Seymour, singing voice by Céline Dion) - Kayley's mother and the wife of Sir Lionel. She worries about Kayley as she is the only family she has left.

• Sir Ruber (Gary Oldman) - The fallen Knight of the Round Table, he wants to own Excalibur and to be the king of England. Appears to have a thing for Juliana, as well as an eye twitch, to denote insanity. He is cunning and exceptionally strong, taking on a dragon in hand-to-hand combat, and winning.

• Devon & Cornwall (Don Rickles as Cornwall and Eric Idle as Devon) - A two-headed dragon, they cannot fly or breathe fire, but when Kayley needs them most, they learn they can do anything if they work together.

• Bladebeak (Jaleel White) - A strange mixture of one of Juliana's chickens and an axe created by Ruber. He is a very uncertain member of the Ruber's band and is notoriously bullied by the other monsters so that he later changes the sides.

• King Arthur (Pierce Brosnan, singing voice by Steve Perry) - The king of England, who resides in Camelot, he is wounded towards the beginning of the movie and healed near the end.

• Merlin (John Gielgud) - King Arthur's wizard who sends Ayden to retrieve Excalibur.

Production

CGI was used for a few scenes, such as to create the rock ogre. According to Kit Percy, head of CGI effects, the software they used had been designed for use with live-action.

Reception

This movie received mostly negative reviews. It was criticized for being too bland and mostly a Disney-type rip-off movie. At the box-office, this movie did poorly. Making $6,041,602 on its opening weekend, the film made $22,717,758 during its theatrical run (on a $40 million budget), it was largely overshadowed by the release of Disney's Mulan. David Kronke of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film is "a nearly perfect reflection of troubling trends in animated features," called Kaylee "a standard-issue spunky female heroine," and said that "Garrett's blindness is the one adventurous element to the film, but even it seems calculated; his lack of sight is hardly debilitating, yet still provides kids a lesson in acceptance". Reportedly, "cost overruns and production nightmares" led the studio to "reconsider their commitment to feature animation." Filmmaker Brad Bird (who helmed the next big feature animation from Warner Bros., thought that micromanaging, which he said had worked well for Disney but not for Warner Bros., had been part of the problem. Kevin J. Harty, editor of a collection of essays called Cinema Arthuriana, says that the film is “slightly indebted to, rather than, as Warner publicity claims, actually based on” Chapman’s novel.

Nonetheless, the soundtrack is quite well-known due to the celebrity vocals present on it, such as Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli singing "The Prayer", LeAnn Rimes singing her single version of the movie's romantic duet, "Looking Through Your Eyes", The Corrs singing "On my Father's Wings", "Looking Through Your Eyes" and Steve Perry singing "I Stand Alone", which is also featured on his "Greatest Hits + 5 Unreleased" album. Gary Oldman is also on the soundtrack, singing Ruber's theme.

It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (for "The Prayer") at the 71st Academy Awards, Won the 1999 Golden Globe for Best Original Song - Motion Picture (also for "The Prayer"), and was nominated for 4 other awards, despite not being considered a commercial and/or critical success.

One of the Celtic Woman members, Chloë Agnew covered "The Prayer" in full English. Another member of the same group, Deirdre Shannon and her brother Matthew, a former Celtic Tenor covered it for her solo album.

Trivia

• Gabriel Byrne (Lionel) played King Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, in the earlier movie Excalibur (1981).

• Pierce Brosnan, who provides King Arthur's voice, was the fifth official cinematic James Bond. Sean Connery, the first such Bond, played King Arthur in First Knight (1995).

• The film was one of the films that put Warner Bros. Animation studio out of business because it performed poorly in the box office.

• Sir Lionel is an actual Knight of the Round Table. The name "Garett" is similar to "Gareth", who is also an actual knight (though not blind), the brother of Sir Gawain, Sir Agravain, Sir Gaheris, and according to some versions, Sir Mordred.

• When Ruber is holding the green potion, it reads "Acme".

• Bladebeak quotes from both Taxi Driver and Dirty Harry.

• When tracking the ogre, the comrades discover several bones left behind, one of them chiefly being a dragon skull. Devon picks it up and says, "Alas poor Yorick; I knew him well." This is a famous misquote from Hamlet. The real quote is "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest."

• It was rumoured to have a $100 million budget largely due to its CGI sequences, but it was actually $40 million.

• Wrestling company World Championship Wrestling helped promote the film on an episode of WCW Thunder by having a live person dressed up as Ruber appear, followed by playing a trailer for the film.

• Eric Idle (Devon) previously starred in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which spoofed Arthurian legend) and would go on to voice Merlin in Shrek the Third.

• In 2006 Warner Bros.Studio Release Quest For Camelot in a DVD Pack with Cats Don't Dance.

Devon and Cornwall

• In the song "If I Didn't Have You", Cornwall sings the lines "'Cause I would be the dragon king" and Devon holds up baby Cornwall on a cliff. The scene is a reference to "Lion King" In another scene, when Devon says "I'd be a fire-breathing lizard," he temporarily transforms into Godzilla. The film came out in the summer of 1998, around the same time as Godzilla.

• Cornwall, the name of a dragon, is also the name of the region of England where King Arthur was supposedly born.

• The two headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall, are named after counties in southwestern England, whose landmasses bear resemblance to the character's heads.

• When Devon and Cornwall sing "If I Didn't Have You ", they dress up as famous people like Elvis Presley and "Sonny and Cher". Cornwall also dons a mask similar to that of the Phantom of the Opera.

• Also in Devon and Cornwall's song, Devon sings that if Cornwall did not exist, he would "cease to be." This is a line referencing the famous Dead Parrot sketch of Monty Python fame. Devon is voiced by Eric Idle, a member of Monty Python.

• During Devon and Cornwall's song, Cornwall dances with Red from the cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood.

• There is a scene during Devon and Cornwall's song which is a reference to the "Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner" cartoon.

• As a tie-in with the movie, Kids' WB! aired a special theme in the form of "Devon and Cornwall's Dubba Dragon Day", in which Devon and Cornwall starred in specially-made promos for the shows. In these promos, Maurice LaMarche substituted for Don Rickles as Cornwall's voice.

• The music that plays when Devon and Cornwall save Ayden is the theme music from the Superman films.

• Cornwall and Devon turn into a painting in the song. It is the cubist style and the line "Life could be so sweet if these were both my feet", is also referring to the fact that in many cubist paintings, it is hard to tell who's limbs are who's.

See also List of films based on Arthurian legend

Soundtrack

Main article: Quest for Camelot: Music from the Motion Picture

External links

• Official Website
• Kayley's page at the animated heroines
• Quest for Camelot at IMDb